What Does Deuteronomy 6:1 Mean in the King James?
Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it:
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
What is commanded is also taught, so the instruction is meant to be learned and lived where you are entering.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to you now through a plain sequence: teaching is received, words become action, and life unfolds in a real place. The land named is concrete, and the instruction is meant to be done there rather than left as abstraction.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that understanding instruction completes it; the verse connects being taught with doing.
THE ROOT
לְלַמֵּד
lelammed
GROWS FROM
למד
Learn; in this verb form, teach.
The form here is לְלַמֵּד (lelammed, “to teach”), from למד (lamad, “learn”). The root holds teaching and learning together, while “that ye might do them” points to what is learned becoming action.
ALSO GROWS
lamad: Learn
לָמַד
The basic verb shares its root with “teach,” joining instruction and learning in one word family.
talmid: Learner, disciple
תַּלְמִיד
The learner’s name grows from the same root, making the link between teaching and learning visible.
חֻקִּים
chuqqim
GROWS FROM
חקק
Engrave, inscribe, prescribe.
The word for statutes grows from חקק (chaqaq, “engrave” or “inscribe”), adding the image of instruction with defined contours. These are shaped words meant to give form to life in the land.
ALSO GROWS
choq: Statute, prescribed portion
חֹק
This related word shows the prescribed instruction contained within the plural “statutes.”
mechoqeq: Lawgiver, one who prescribes
מְחוֹקֵק
The lawgiver’s title grows from the same root, linking inscribed instruction with the one who sets it forth.
לְרִשְׁתָּהּ
lerishtah
GROWS FROM
ירש
Inherit, take possession; in some forms, dispossess.
“possess” in this verse is lerishtah. The verb can hold both inheriting and taking possession, and in some forms dispossessing; the verse names actual land, keeping receiving and taking in view. This ties the practice of the teaching to a real place entered and possessed.
ALSO GROWS
yerushah: Inheritance, possession
יְרֻשָּׁה
This noun shows the inheritance sense carried by the root behind “possess.”
morashah: Inheritance, possession
מוֹרָשָׁה
This related word keeps the sense of an inherited place close to the verse’s language of entering the land.
THE PATTERN
Instruction reaches its purpose as it moves from being received into the shape of a lived path.
And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.THE THREAD
I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments.The Hebrew root למד (lamad, “learn”) stands behind “teach” in Deuteronomy and “learned” in this psalm. The shared root joins the instruction being given with the learner receiving it.
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